5 nabbed in two burglaries

A sheriff's detective escorts a 17-year-old girl into custody after an attempted home robbery in Canyon Country. An 18-year-old male was also taken into custody after the two allegedly broke the window of a home on Chadway.

Five burglary suspects were nabbed in two separate Canyon Country break-ins within just a few hours Friday, including one in Fair Oaks Ranch.

Deputies did not release the names of the suspects in either burglary Friday night.

The arrests come a day after two other suspects were arrested in another burglary in the neighborhood.

In Friday’s incident at Fair Oaks Ranch, a neighbor called sheriff’s deputies about 11:45 a.m. after noticing three unfamiliar people at a house on Wren Drive.

Deputies arrived minutes later and locked down the neighborhood until they caught the trio.

“It was a good response from everybody,” sheriff’s Detective Rob Morris said, adding praise for the witness who reported the crime.

At about 1:30 p.m., deputies arrested a teenage couple in an unrelated burglary attempt in the 19500 block of Chadway Street. They tried to break into a house less than a block away from where they were living, sheriff’s deputies said.

Neither of Friday’s break-ins appeared to be related to a wave of door-kick burglaries that has rocked Fair Oaks Ranch since early March.

In those crimes, burglars kicked in front doors to get into homes. Sometimes they fled after encountering alarm systems or residents.

A man and a woman in a white Mercedes-Benz sport-utility vehicle are suspected in at least four of the door-kick burglaries.

The pattern has prompted sheriff’s deputies to step up interaction with the community and its neighborhood watch groups. Some residents have also formed informal, independent watch groups.

Resident Trent Groves, who was standing outside his home near where one of Friday’s suspects was caught, watched sheriff’s deputies swarm around the burglarized home and the suspects’ car.

“I’m going to test my alarm system today,” the 36-year-old said.

Groves, who has lived in the neighborhood about two years, said his wife stays home many days and he worries that burglars might kick in the door and find her alone.

“Valuables are all replaceable,” he said. “I could care less about them. It’s a safety issue of someone trying to break in while you’re home.”

The witness who called the police on Friday — and has asked not to be named for fear of retaliation — told The Signal what he saw through his window that morning: three shady characters looking around, walking in and out of the house and apparently chatting with one another on cell phones.

“It was just too obvious,” the witness said.

He said he felt rewarded when he heard deputies caught the would-be burglars.

“Hopefully they won’t come back, or people like them,” the witness said. “Because I’ll be watching.”